Another example of government being captured by the fossil fuel industry, in this case the Modi administration in India choosing to pursue legal action against activists, rather than work towards decarbonization.
Gift link is paywall-bypassing for the next two weeks.
West Virginia Governor’s Coal Empire Sued by the Federal Government — Again
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department, seeks millions in unpaid environmental fines as Gov. Jim Justice begins his campaign for the U.S. #Senate.
Today in Labor History June 1 is the day that U.S. labor law officially allows children under the age of 16 to work up to 8 hours per day between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 pm. Time is ticking away, Bosses. Have you signed up sufficient numbers of low-wage tykes to maintain production rates with your downsized adult staffs?
The reality is that child labor laws have always been violated regularly by employers and these violations have been on the rise recently. Additionally, many lawmakers are seeking to weaken existing, poorly enforced laws to make it even easier to exploit children. Over the past year, the number of children employed in violation of labor laws rose by 37%, while lawmakers in at least 10 states passed, or introduced, new laws to roll back the existing rules. Violations include hiring kids to work overnight shifts in meatpacking factories, cleaning razor-sharp blades and using dangerous chemical cleaners on the kills floors for companies like Tyson and Cargill. Particularly vulnerable are migrant youth who have crossed the southern U.S. border from Central America, unaccompanied by parents. https://www.epi.org/publication/child-labor-laws-under-attack/
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Of course, what is happening in the U.S. is small potatoes compared with many other countries, where exploitation of child labor is routine, and often legal. Kids are almost always paid far less than adults, increasing the bosses’ profits. They are often more compliant than adults and less likely to form unions and resist. Bosses can get them to do dangerous tasks that adults can’t, or won’t, do, like unclogging the gears and belts of machinery. This was also the norm in the U.S., well into the 20th century. In my soon (I hope) to be released novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” the protagonist, Mike Doyle, works as a coal cleaner in the breaker (coal crushing facility) of a coal mine at the age or 13. Many kids began work in the collieries before they were 10. They often were missing limbs and died young from lung disease. However, when the breaker bosses abused them, they would sometimes collectively chuck rocks and coal at them, or walk out, en masse, in wildcat strikes. And when their fathers, who worked in the pits, as laborers and miners, went on strike, they would almost always walk out with them, in solidarity.
Developers are trying to build a massive #coal export terminal that would pollute West #Oakland neighborhoods & increase the likelihood of a toxic spill in #SFBay.
We need the city council to continue to stand firm on #NoCoalInOakland for healthy communities & a healthy Bay.
"Last year, the gov imposed a 20% tax on solar panels, wind turbines and related technologies under the IMF programme, reversing the growth trend in solar markets..."
"..IMF loan conditions has forced the gov to abandon its flagship 600-megawatt solar project while resorting to easier.. coal power, in the 300MW Gwadar plant."
New Zealand’s marine heatwaves are a warning to the world!
A tragic story about New Zealand’s marine #heatwaves. Small penguins starving in hundreds. Fish kills. Meanwhile Australia’s Labor govt stupidly approved new #coal mine this week. #ClimateChange
"#Ohio’s bill labeling gas as “green” appears to be more of a public relations stunt than anything. #Tennessee’s new law, on the other hand, has a specific, anti-#climate policy intent. It doesn’t just vaguely say that “#gas is #CleanEnergy;” it says that local governments attempting to set “clean energy” standards must include gas in that definition.
Three of the Tennessee bill’s co-sponsors are #ALEC members"
"#Montana Gov. Greg #Gianforte has signed into law a bill that bars the state from considering #climate impacts in its analysis of large projects such as #coal mines and #PowerPlants.
House Bill 971 [drew] more than 1,000 comments, 95% of which expressed opposition to the measure. "
Seems ordinary Montanans know this bill doesn't make sense.Looks like they were ignored.
Proposed EPA rules would require almost all coal plants along with large gas plants to cut or capture nearly all their carbon dioxide emissions by 2038
Mourning and celebration: A funeral for a coal-fired power plant.
Inside Climate News reports on a theater and art project created to help an Appalachian community deal with complicated feelings about the loss of its largest employer.
The #epas new rule "is expected to require #coal and natural #gas#PowerPlants to cut or capture almost all their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. But that’s a decade sooner than most of the nation’s largest power producers are aiming to be net #carbon free."
"Large categories of #coal and natural #gas#PowerPlants—those that are going to close soon, or are small, or only run intermittently—will not face new requirements at all. And clean-up of the electricity sector will rely on two technologies—carbon capture and storage, or CCS, and clean hydrogen—that are receiving billions of dollars of federal #subsidies approved by Congress over the past two years."
Other countries like #Germany and #China that still burn a lot of coal should take note: changing or adapting the transport vehicles (wagons) might help to reduce #AirPollution significantly.
"It found that passing #trains carrying #coal add on average 8 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) to ambient PM2.5 #pollution...Under certain wind conditions, these #concentrations reached 25 ug/m3..."
"...It found that passing #trains carrying #coal add on average 8 micrograms per cubic meter of #air (ug/m3) to ambient PM2.5 #pollution. That is 2 to 3 ug/m3 more than #freight trains contribute. Even empty coal cars add about 2 ug/m3 to the air due to traces of coal dust.
...the first study of coal train particulate pollution in a #US urban area. It’s also the first to use artificial intelligence [#AI] technologies to verify that the source of #air#pollution detected comes..."
"...That is 2 to 3 ug/m3 more than freight trains contribute. Even empty coal cars add about 2 ug/m3 to the air due to traces of coal dust. Under certain wind conditions, these concentrations reached 25 ug/m3..."
How Bankruptcy Helps Coal Industry Avoid Environmental Liability
Jeff Hoops built Blackjewel into the nation’s sixth largest #coal company by acquiring #bankrupt mines. When it declared #bankruptcy, he pivoted to other ventures, leaving polluted streams and mud-shrouded roads in his wake.
In the Game of Musical Mines, Environmental Damage Takes a Back Seat — co-published with Mountain State Spotlight
#Ohio officials cast wary eye on new owner at former Beckjord site after local farmer purchases 1/3rd of the site.
The W.C. Beckjord Station, a closed Duke Energy #coal power plant located 20 miles east of #Cincinnati, contains more than 10 billion pounds of toxins that are packed into ponds along the banks of the #OhioRiver
Amazing how the corporate entities involved in this can shutter their responsibility to a farmer after raking in billions of dollars
I’m sorry, if you seriously believe that Germany’s present #coal investments wouldn’t have happened if the country hadn’t shut down its remaining #nuclear power plants, that’s just incredibly naive.
Conflating the issues of nuclear power and coal and framing things as if these are the only two options benefits only those who benefit from either (or both) of them.
Both need to go. And one being successfully ended now after literally two whole generations of activism is absolutely a success and doesn’t hinder the fight against the other.
Don’t let yourself be played against your fellow comrades.
Not only #ExxonKnew, but also #ShellKnew, way before 1986 as we have thought so far.
"#Shell already began collecting knowledge about climate change in the 1960s. The company not only kept well abreast of #climate science, but also funded research. As a result, Shell already knew in the 1970s that burning #FossilFuels could lead to alarming #ClimateChange."
They did nothing to curb fossil fuels. In fact, they doubled down and developed #coal.
"Much of the reluctance to do what #ClimateChange requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for #austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly #emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction?
What if the austerity is how we live now — and the #abundance could be what is to come?"
Of course, "The #FossiFuel industry is really winding up the scare campaign in the face of increasingly urgent calls to accelerate the switch from #coal, #gas and #oil to a #CleanEnergy future."
They're telling lies, trying to cover up the fact that we're living the dystopia today, burning stuff that causes asthma, cancer, wildfires and floods.